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The list of question every buyer asks about the various
properties during a house hunt is relatively predictable.

How many bedrooms does it have? Baths? Square footage? What are
the HOA dues? What’s the school district?

Then, we get more specific, personalizing the questions based on
our own vision, aesthetics and lifestyle needs: Can that wall be
moved? Is there space for Grandma’s dining room table? Is there a
shady spot for an orchid house in the backyard?

When it comes to crime, most of us simply don’t ask any questions
at all, as (a) agents might be prohibited from doing much beyond
pointing us to law enforcement sources, and (b) we tend to assume
most neighborhoods are either ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ low-crime or not.
The truth is never so black and white. Fortunately, technology
has made it easy-peasy for us to get a deeper, more nuanced, and
more usable understanding of the crime that takes place in our
neighborhood-to-be, which in turn allows us to make smarter
decisions about which home we buy and how we live in it, once we
buy it, than we could have even ten years ago.

The key to tapping into this nuanced crime information is asking
the right questions. Here’s a short list of the right questions
to ask about crime before you buy a home.

1. Do any offenders live nearby? In most states,
Megan’s Law and similar provisions mandate that certain
individuals with histories of criminal convictions must register
their home addresses with local authorities, who in turn are
required to make this information available to the public.
Google
“your city, your state Megan’s Law registry" to find sites where
you can type in an address (like the address of the home you’re
considering buying) and find a list of registered sex offenders
in the area. Many of these sites will also offer you a map
showing your address and the relative locations of the homes of
the registered offenders.

The reality is that every neighborhood - even very upscale areas
- has someone living in it who has committed a crime in the past,
so don’t completely freak out if you happen to find someone in
your neighborhood-to-be with a history of sex offenses. The
utility of this information is that it empowers you and your
children to recognize these dangers and to take care to avoid
hazardous situations. That said, if you happen to have young
children and notice that the Megan’s Law map has a halfway house
with a dozen registered sex offenders living right next door to
your target home, that information might change your decision
about whether that property is the right one for you.

There is also power in following the path of the information you
are given on these registry sites. Many will surface information
like what the registrants’ crimes were, when they happened, the
registrants’ photos and more useful intelligence. This
information can help you evaluate the degree to which you should
be concerned before you buy.

2. Was the home a drug lab? You think your
home’s former owner’s food or pet smells are toxic? That’s
nothing compared to the truly unpleasant and health-impairing
effects some have experienced after buying a home that turned out
to have been a methamphetamine lab in a former life. If the
sellers know this about a home, they should certainly disclose
it. Unfortunately, many of these homes end up sold by banks as
foreclosures, or by estates, trusts, landlords or other corporate
owners who don’t know the home’s past - or don’t have a legal
obligation to disclose it.

Get the answer to this question to the best of your ability via
this two-step process:
(a) talk with the neighbors - they often will reveal whether the
house had a shady past, then
(b) search the federal Drug Enforcement Association’s Clandestine
Laboratory Registry, here: http://www.justice.gov/dea/clan-lab/clan-lab.shtml.

3. What sorts of crimes happen in the area.
Where and when do they happen? Crime happens virtually
everywhere. But the details of crime patterns vary widely in
various neighborhoods. One side of town might be plagued with an
overall low crime rate, but the crime that does happen tends to
be violent crime after dark. While another neighborhood across
town might have lots of car break-ins during the day while people
are at work, but not much going on after residents get back home
- and not much violent crime at all.

This sort of information can be highly useful to a buyer-to-be,
as it can help you make decisions not just about whether or not
to buy, but also about whether to park your car outside (or not),
whether to get an alarm and where in a given neighborhood you
might prefer your home to be (e.g., interior cul-de-sac vs.
thoroughfare in the same area).

Trulia Crime Maps offer
precisely this sort of nuanced information, allowing you to view
your town and neighborhood’s crime rate in heat map format
showing the relative violent and non-violent crimes that have
taken place recently in different parts of town. It also provides
information on crime trends, in terms of the frequency of
criminal activity taking place at various hours of the day, and
the most dangerous intersections in your town or area.
SpotCrime.com
offers another angle on nuanced crime data, breaking down crime
types with easy-to-scan icons and providing data for communities
all over the country.

4. What anti-crime features does - or can - the home
have? Review your disclosures and talk with the sellers
(through your agent, of course) about what anti-crime features
the home currently has. This will allow you to prepare for any
upgrades, downgrades or changes you’ll want to make. For
example, if a home has security bars that were installed 3
decades ago, you might want to have them brought up to code with
a fire release bar, or removed altogether. Or, perhaps the
sellers currently have the home wired for an alarm that can be
armed, disarmed and video monitored remotely - if you want to
continue that service, you’ll need to get that information and
make the account change when you take over the other utilties and
home services.

On the other hand, the home might not have any anti-crime
features. So, if there is a particular alarm or monitoring
system you like, it is smart to check in with that provider
before close of escrow to find out whether they can provide
services to the new addres and, if so, what it will cost and take
to equip the home and start service up at closing.

5. What does the neighborhood do to fight crime - and how
can I help? Neighborhoods across the country fight and
prevent crime the grassroots way, by maintaining strong
connections between the home owners and neighbors who all have in
common the desire to live and raise their families in a safe,
secure, thriving place. Don’t hesitate to ask your home’s
seller and/or any neighbors you talk to about whether there are
any neighborhood associations, neighborhood watch groups, email
lists, social networks, regular meetings, block parties or other
community connections in which you can actively participate.